This week, news surfaced that recently retired UFC light heavyweight Anthony Johnson had filed a formal appeal with the NYSAC regarding his fight with Daniel Cormier. The appeal revealed that Johnson was looking to have Cormier testify under oath as to why he held the privacy towel at the early UFC 210 weigh-ins, and if unable to provide proof as to why he did so, give Johnson 20% of his purse for the fight, as well as be stripped of the light heavyweight title.

Needless to say, the appeal left fight fans rather stunned, however Johnson immediately took to social media to issue a statement on the matter.

First and foremost I never said I wanted D.C. stripped of the title. He beat me and that's that… 2nd I said everything would be handled After the fight because I was focused on the Fight. Weigh ins was messed up and at the end of the day it was wrong. If I lose fans because I'm fighting for what's right then so be it. If it happen to me, it can happen to anybody. The world made all of this noise about it and when an appeal is made the world will cry about the appeal. That makes zero sense! Weigh ins was messed up and the fight wasn't because he beat me. I'm not complaining about the loss, I'm complaining about the weigh ins. D.C. shouldn't be stripped at all but for sure answer to the weigh in situation. If you hate me you hate that's what you have to deal with. If you love me then I love you back… Btw this definitely isn't about money, that's for damn sure. It's the principal of the situation for you knuckleheads that have no brain. #RumbleSquad

A post shared by Anthony Johnson (@anthony_rumble) on Apr 13, 2017 at 1:49pm PDT

Things are about to heat up!

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/13/2017.